Linxia

Chapter 21, Falling into Water

Another afternoon of traveling passed. When the sun set, dim stars appeared in the daylight, and the day's journey was finally over.

Fang Lin went to the river to fetch water. On the way, he saw a pair of wild doves tumbling in the grass. When he bent down to pick up a stone, one of the doves was startled and flew away. He raised his hand and threw it, and with a whoosh, one of the doves fell down.

However, the wild dove was still flapping its wings and was not dead yet. Fang Lin strode forward, grabbed its neck, twisted it with a little force, and harvested a dead dove.

Fang Lin held the turtledove but did not leave. He looked around. According to his experience, bird eggs were often found in nearby thorn bushes or behind rocks.

Sure enough, a hint of white was found in the grass nest behind the rock not far away.

"Me first! Me first!"

However, amidst the noise, a tall man rushed over from the front, picked up a few bird eggs, and stuffed them into his mouth. Then he looked up at Fang Lin, his face full of pride.

This tall guy is called Yao Bin. He had a fever for too long when he was a child and his brain was damaged. He is not stupid, but probably... he is a little dull and a bit stupid.

"Well, you first, it's yours!"

Fang Lin stared at Yao Bin and saw the clear stupidity in those eyes. Then, his gaze moved slightly downwards and landed on the other's shit-yellow mouth, and he fell silent for a moment.

In fact, bird eggs are originally ownerless. Whoever gets them first owns them. Although both of them discovered it, they would not fight to decide the ownership as they did before. But Yao Bin obviously didn't know that, and he didn't take the bird eggs and run away. Instead, he stuffed them into his mouth and ate them raw. I have to say, he was a little stupid, but also quite brave.

Click!Click!
At this moment, Yao Bin suddenly widened his eyes, moved his throat, stopped chewing, and raised his hand.

Fang Lin thought the guy was choking, but he saw him pointing in a direction: "Someone fell into the water!"

He couldn't help but look.

……

Chen Ye came to the river to fetch water, holding a small clay pot - it was too big for her to hold, so it took her several attempts to fetch enough water. But she was not afraid of being tired because she knew her mother was even more tired.

When fetching water, she had to bend her legs, bend her waist, and lean her upper body forward. Her clothes would hang down and stick to her body, making her look even smaller. With her tiny hands, she would place the tiny clay pot in the water, and the river water would gurgle, expelling air and letting it in.

"Fish! Fish, come in!"

The little girl was mumbling something, and the braid on the back of her head was tilted and swaying. This was because she was gently shaking the mouth of the jar left and right, as if she wanted to suck the fish in along with the water. It would be best if she could suck in two fish, because then she and her mother could each have one.

Bai Bao from the Bai family was also fetching water. Compared to the little girl who seemed to have no worries, he felt tired like a dead dog after a day's journey and was not happy at all. Seeing Chen Ye like this, he felt inexplicably upset, and even recalled the five acres of land deed that his family had to pay as compensation because of Chen Daqiang's death - theoretically, he had half of it!

The more he thought about it, the more aggrieved he felt. When he passed Chen Ye on his way to fetch water, he suddenly felt evil and pushed the little girl hard from behind.

Bang - bang!

Chen Ye fell into the water, and the small pottery jar broke into pieces. The fragments cut her arm, and the blood dyed the water red.

……

Yao Bin and Fang Lin both saw this scene, especially Yao Bin, who yelled, ran over quickly, and picked Chen Ye up from the water.

Because of this guy's loud roar, the villagers were attracted, including Fang's mother and Tian Xuan. At noon, it was Fang's father and Fang Lin who were watching the fun. This time, Uncle Fang stayed behind, so it was their turn.

"mother!"

Chen Ye didn't cry when he fell into the water or when his arm was cut by pottery shards. But when he saw Sister Guihua, he lowered his head and pouted: "I broke the little jar."

"It's okay, as long as you're okay. Just be more careful next time." Sister Guihua bandaged her children's wounds, her tone full of heartache.

"It wasn't an accident. Bai Bao pushed me. I saw it." Yao Bin said loudly. His loud voice made people's ears buzz. "What nonsense are you talking about, you idiot?" Bai Bao's face flashed with panic. He quickly refuted and said to everyone, "How can we believe what he says, he is a idiot?"

"I'm not a fool, you are the fool." Yao Bin retorted with full force, then pointed at Fang Lin and said, "I didn't lie, Fang Lin saw it too."

The villagers looked over one after another.

Originally, Fang Lin would have said he didn't see it clearly, as he didn't want to meddle in other people's business. However, the "fools" in the eyes of the villagers had seen it before and had come out to testify, which made him hesitate for a rare moment.

"You can't believe Fang Lin's words." At this time, Bai Bao's acquaintance Song Kai suddenly stood up and said, "On the way to the county town, I saw Fang Lin and Sister Guihua borrowing and returning grain, flirting with each other, and it was unclear..."

Snapped!
Fang Lin stepped forward and slapped him without mercy, making Song Kai's face swollen.

Song Kai didn't expect Fang Lin to attack suddenly. He was caught off guard and was slapped in the face in front of so many people. He got hot-headed and punched him directly.

Fang Lin was prepared for this and dodged sideways, then threw Song Kai to the ground with an over-the-shoulder throw.

In the eyes of others, Song Kai fell down in a flash. Only the corner of Fang Lin's clothes that rose and fell told how fast he was.

After knocking Song Kai down, he rolled up his sleeves and glanced sideways at Bai Bao and Zheng Yu who were rushing over to help.

This fierce look actually frightened the two men so much that they stopped abruptly, and even took two steps back subconsciously. When they reacted, they felt extremely embarrassed, and could only comfort themselves with the thought, "It's embarrassing whether I can win or not in front of so many people."

The young girls and wives present stared at Fang Lin, who moved as smoothly as flowing water. Their eyes lit up and they felt that the whole set of movements had an indescribable smooth beauty. Tian Xuan also looked at her own brother Lin and felt that he was indescribably handsome.

"My son, are you okay?" Fang's mother also rushed over, pulled Fang closer and asked with concern, almost wailing.

The onlookers were silenced by these words.

Song Kai, who was lying on the ground, kept groaning and yelling in his heart: "Are you blind? It's obviously me who got beaten, okay?"

"fine."

Fang Lin shook his head slightly, then looked at Song Kai again, his face calm, and said: "Our two families are also in-laws. According to seniority, you should call me cousin. Today, you don't know the reason for the matter, and you force yourself to stand up for others. This is unwise; you are full of shit and slander your brother. This is disrespectful and unfilial. If you treat your brother like this, what about your parents? Uncle Song is not here today, so I will discipline you on his behalf and slap you. Do you accept this?"

He pointed out their relationship, that Song Kai was Song Kai's cousin, and said that there was a reason for him to beat him. He then labeled Song Kai's behavior as unwise, disrespectful, unfraternal, and unfilial, and even extended the blame to the other party's parents. In the name of discipline, it seems that I beat you up and you still have to thank me!
"Haha!" The villagers were stunned for a moment before they selectively focused on the key point. They realized the meaning of "full of shit" and laughed. They usually cursed people in a plain and simple way, directly greeting their ancestors. How could they be so elegant like Fang Lin, cursing so fresh and refined, and even thinking a little bit? They all felt that they had learned something.

However, there are still some smart people in the village who can see through Fang Lin’s ruthlessness.

Defining Song Kai's standing up for Bai Bao as unwise was just short of calling him a fool; Fang Lin defined the two sentences that slandered Fang Lin and Sister Guihua as disrespectful to his brother, which was also considered an act of unfilial piety, and even extended it to his parents, questioning Song Kai's morality from the root.

You have to know that this was an era when Confucianism was deeply rooted in people's hearts and scholars held the right to speak. To be labeled as unfilial would be absolutely a devastating event.

Let me put it this way, if Song Kai was a scholar, his life would be over if this incident today got out, and no one would check his paper when he took the imperial examination.

Song Kai didn't have time to think about all this, but he was first beaten, and then Fang Lin stood on the moral high ground and criticized him in the name of discipline, which made him so angry that he didn't know how to refute for a moment, and his face turned red with frustration. Finally, he thought of the excuse that the two families were not so close relatives, and tried to refute it reluctantly.

Fang Lin ignored him, turned his head to the side and looked at Bai Bao: "Yes, I saw it too, he pushed it."

What Song Kai did helped him make up his mind. He didn't want to meddle in other people's business, but he also had a temper. It was impossible for him to swallow his anger and not fight back when Bai Bao, Song Kai and a bunch of scum jumped on his face.

"Mom, I felt like someone pushed me." Chen Ye also said.

At this point, all the villagers who were not stupid understood, and they all looked at Bai Bao, ready to see what else he had to say.

……

(End of this chapter)